The Great War
by Charles Attwater
Summary: When Europe fell into war in the year 1914 the nation of Amestris never expected to be called into the war. However, when Germany calls on her ally the state alchemists are once again sent to war.


A/N I don't own fullmetal alchemist (duh). Ok now that that is out of the way a few things: 1) instead of being born in 1899 Ed is now born in 1901 and Al is now born in 1902. They now attempt Human Transmutation in 1912 and Ed becomes a State Alchemist in 1913. Basically everything is pushed back by two years. This serves to make Ed younger during the war. While some may say that a 13 year old would never fight in a war, specifically a war like WWI. But you would be wrong. Boy soldiers were not uncommon and a country like Amestris would definitely use child soldiers. Amestris is in between Austria, Romania and Serbia in this world just to make things easier geography wise. Xing is what they call China, there is now just the Ottoman Empire in between Amestris and Xing. Drachma is Romania etc... It should be obvious by this point but this is an AU. Finally, feel free to leave suggestions of what you might want to see in this story in the reviews.

Edward Elric was 13 when Amestris, honoring her alliance with the German Empire, declared war on the Russian Empire, Serbia, France, and Great Britain. He was 13 when Fuhrer King Bradley deployed the Amestrian military to Europe. He had only been a state alchemist for a year when he, along with the rest of the unit he worked with was deployed to a country he had never heard of before, Belgium.

"Write to me brother" Al called as the train carrying the soldiers departed the train station.

Al never heard Ed's response as the train had already taken him out of earshot. The large, hallow, suit of armor signed as he looked at the end of the train getting further and further away.

Even though he was going to live with the woman who was basically his grandmother and the girl who was essentially his sister he already knew he would be worried beyond belief about his brother. While Amestris didn't always get the most up to date information Al had heard horror stories from the front. Stories about what the German army had been doing. Doing to kittens even, those stories scared Al the most.

Al remembered when Winry's parents died in the Ishvalan war, she cried for days nearly non-stop. Al couldn't even imagine what his response would be if Ed were to die in battle. He couldn't cry in this body, would he continue searching for the philosopher's stone, try to get his body back? He decided that it was best not to dwell on such thoughts and hope for the best on the front. Al left the platform his brother departed from and went to find his train. After his own train left Central City, Al couldn't help but stare out the window and imagine Ed was probably seeing something similar.

Ed figured that his most recent trip to the bathroom must have been his thirteenth such endeavor. It had been two days since they left Amestris and Mustang said they should be at the front in another four days, two more days to get to Germany, a day of planning and finally another day of travel to the front lines where they would assist the German army in the conquest of this country called France. While seeing the deployed units out the Fuhrer had told everyone that Germany and all the other nations engaged in the war promised it would be over by Christmas, whatever that was (Mustang told him it was a holiday commonly celebrated in Europe and North America around the Winter Solstice). Ed thought that it seemed unlikely a war could be over in under 6 months, although, having no experience in a war he couldn't be sure. While he would never admit it to that bastard of a Colonel he has terrified, when he joined the military last year in order to increase his chances of finding the philosopher's stone he never imagined he would be sent off to war.

As he went back to the compartment he shared with Colonel Mustang and Second Lieutenant Havoc, Ed managed to catch a glimpse out one of the windows of the train. As a boy who grew up in a small town and had only been in a large city for a year, Ed hadn't ever had a chance to see the mountains and looking at the great peaks of the Austrian mountain ranges Ed was surprised. He had only heard of these and now that he saw them for the first time he was awed by their beauty. He laughed to himself as he continued to walk to his compartment and he remembered what his bastard of a father once told him, "Always look for the good in circumstances that may seem awful" or something like that.

"So, tell me again, why the hell are we going to help another country invade a different country, neither of which directly involve us." Havoc said as he lit a cigarette, grinning as he knew that by asking the same question he had five previous times that day, he would greatly irritate his superior officer.

"Havoc, if I have to explain it one more time you won't even make it to the front" Mustang growled while reading a file.

Ed silently walked in, uncharacteristically not joining in to the brewing argument .

"Well Fullmetal, any comments?" Mustang asked, deciding to take the opportunity to attempt to get his youngest subordinate talking again.

It had only been two years since the end of the Ishvalan Civil War. Three years since Mustang himself had first gone to war. He remembered his first days in Ishval, his last true few days of complete humanity, before he was asked to murder innocents. Roy hadn't slept for a full night since then. He was by no means old but at least he was an adult, Fullmetal on the other hand had barely even started puberty. Mustang wasn't surprised when his unit was deployed, what did surprise him was that Fullmetal was also going to be deployed. He put these thoughts to the back of his mind as he watched Ed's mouth open.

"No" He mumbled.


End file.
